Adam
I grew up watching Indy on screen in the 80's, so I've been pretty familiar with the movies given how many times I've seen them. The only books I had were some scholastic books about the movies and there was a series of Choose Your Own Adventure style books at one point, I had some of those... but I don't remember them. I also only found one of the books when I was cleaning out some stuff at my parents house. As an avid book collector I am surprised I missed out on the initial printing of this back in 1991, but I picked up all of them around 2008 when they were repressed. Probably to go with the long awaited fourth installment of the movie franchise. MacGregor writing in 1991... these books should be closer in feel to the original films. This is sort of the case, but it is certainly not on par with the greatness of the films really. But, what can one expect from a first foray into trying to bring this character to the page in a long form novel.
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi is more a prequel to the films, where we get insight into the development of Indy's character on his way to being the hardened adventurer we meet in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In this story, set in the 1920's, we meet Indy as he is graduating from university. This is sort of the only area of the book I had a bit of a problem with. I suppose MacGregor was trying to portray some level of high minded hi-jinx of college students... but for me this sort of felt way out of character. In the beginning he makes a statement of free speech by hanging the founding fathers of the U.S., and while the statement made sense, the hanging didn't make as much to me. I feel like the trouble Indy often got into was more to do with him trying to do the right thing and then things going weirdly wrong. I don't know, it just didn't seem like that's what happened here.
Anyway, after this we move more into the proper setting. Indy in the PhD program. Here we find him in Paris, France, where he is going for a linguistics doctorate. One of his professors, Dorian Belacamus who is an archeologist, is... as one can expect an incredibly beautiful Greek woman. It's an Indiana Jones story... at some point it needs to follow the Bond formula of having a different woman for every installment... I mean why would anyone want to read about a power couple with real staying power... (for the record, the power couple is honestly one of my all time favorite setups and there just aren't enough around). I digress, in any event, she lures him to Greece to try and pique his interest in archaeology so she can convince him to switch majors. Do they end up sleeping together? Of course they do... So, this is all very predictable, just as its very predictable in the movies!
Well, now the adventure can truly begin, because Indy finds himself in some power politics plot between Belacamus and her real lover Alex Mandraki. (That's right, the villain women is always sleeping around, of course of course.) The draw for going to Delphi is that there was an earthquake which apparently unearthed some hidden objects, but the big draw was the vapors were appearing again. I knew nothing of Delphi, other than that scene in the movie 300, so I rather appreciated MacGregor's explanations of whole point where Pythia would inhale the vapors and babble about stuff, which then required the special priests to interpret her predictions... which they would basically use as a method to sway political decisions. Ancient history, what a hoot. When they arrive at the dig there's already a bunch of hubbub about the vapors and a secret sect thinks Dorian could be the next Pythia. So between Belacamus trying to just do her job, plotting with her boyfriend and now this sect coming into play there are a lot forces vying for the vapors of Delphi.
Things really come to a head when the King of Greece gets involved, because he would naturally need to view the site.Essentially, Mandraki, who is a high ranking official in the military, wants to make a play against the king. He is going to use the backdrop of the vapors as a literal smoke screen to cast the king into the crevasse to plummet to his death. I don't think he planned on Belacamus becoming Pythia, but I'm sure he'd be fine ruling through her ideas. The secret sect is eventually done away with by Mandraki in one fell swoop. Only Indy and his friends from Paris manage to escape and eventually manage to tell the king the truth of what really happened. Enough evidence exists that the king believe Indy and eventually moves against Mandraki.
In the end, I did think this was a pretty decent book. Despite the predictability, and the time of its writing, I was able to look beyond some of the flaws and just enjoy it for the adventure it is. I think MacGregor did a pretty good job trying to cast a somewhat more doubtful Indy in his younger years. The budding college student, unsure of their future, looking off in the distance of time trying to figure out what they really want to do and reconciling the baggage of past mistakes and familial expectations. While, reading about a less confident Indy was a bit jarring at first, I did get into it and it really did make sense amidst the time frame... however, I do look forward to any novels that cater to the more hardened adventurer version of Indiana Jones. Perhaps I will find one in my pile of books as I read these in order of release.
I grew up watching Indy on screen in the 80's, so I've been pretty familiar with the movies given how many times I've seen them. The only books I had were some scholastic books about the movies and there was a series of Choose Your Own Adventure style books at one point, I had some of those... but I don't remember them. I also only found one of the books when I was cleaning out some stuff at my parents house. As an avid book collector I am surprised I missed out on the initial printing of this back in 1991, but I picked up all of them around 2008 when they were repressed. Probably to go with the long awaited fourth installment of the movie franchise. MacGregor writing in 1991... these books should be closer in feel to the original films. This is sort of the case, but it is certainly not on par with the greatness of the films really. But, what can one expect from a first foray into trying to bring this character to the page in a long form novel.
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi is more a prequel to the films, where we get insight into the development of Indy's character on his way to being the hardened adventurer we meet in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In this story, set in the 1920's, we meet Indy as he is graduating from university. This is sort of the only area of the book I had a bit of a problem with. I suppose MacGregor was trying to portray some level of high minded hi-jinx of college students... but for me this sort of felt way out of character. In the beginning he makes a statement of free speech by hanging the founding fathers of the U.S., and while the statement made sense, the hanging didn't make as much to me. I feel like the trouble Indy often got into was more to do with him trying to do the right thing and then things going weirdly wrong. I don't know, it just didn't seem like that's what happened here.
Anyway, after this we move more into the proper setting. Indy in the PhD program. Here we find him in Paris, France, where he is going for a linguistics doctorate. One of his professors, Dorian Belacamus who is an archeologist, is... as one can expect an incredibly beautiful Greek woman. It's an Indiana Jones story... at some point it needs to follow the Bond formula of having a different woman for every installment... I mean why would anyone want to read about a power couple with real staying power... (for the record, the power couple is honestly one of my all time favorite setups and there just aren't enough around). I digress, in any event, she lures him to Greece to try and pique his interest in archaeology so she can convince him to switch majors. Do they end up sleeping together? Of course they do... So, this is all very predictable, just as its very predictable in the movies!
Well, now the adventure can truly begin, because Indy finds himself in some power politics plot between Belacamus and her real lover Alex Mandraki. (That's right, the villain women is always sleeping around, of course of course.) The draw for going to Delphi is that there was an earthquake which apparently unearthed some hidden objects, but the big draw was the vapors were appearing again. I knew nothing of Delphi, other than that scene in the movie 300, so I rather appreciated MacGregor's explanations of whole point where Pythia would inhale the vapors and babble about stuff, which then required the special priests to interpret her predictions... which they would basically use as a method to sway political decisions. Ancient history, what a hoot. When they arrive at the dig there's already a bunch of hubbub about the vapors and a secret sect thinks Dorian could be the next Pythia. So between Belacamus trying to just do her job, plotting with her boyfriend and now this sect coming into play there are a lot forces vying for the vapors of Delphi.
Things really come to a head when the King of Greece gets involved, because he would naturally need to view the site.Essentially, Mandraki, who is a high ranking official in the military, wants to make a play against the king. He is going to use the backdrop of the vapors as a literal smoke screen to cast the king into the crevasse to plummet to his death. I don't think he planned on Belacamus becoming Pythia, but I'm sure he'd be fine ruling through her ideas. The secret sect is eventually done away with by Mandraki in one fell swoop. Only Indy and his friends from Paris manage to escape and eventually manage to tell the king the truth of what really happened. Enough evidence exists that the king believe Indy and eventually moves against Mandraki.
In the end, I did think this was a pretty decent book. Despite the predictability, and the time of its writing, I was able to look beyond some of the flaws and just enjoy it for the adventure it is. I think MacGregor did a pretty good job trying to cast a somewhat more doubtful Indy in his younger years. The budding college student, unsure of their future, looking off in the distance of time trying to figure out what they really want to do and reconciling the baggage of past mistakes and familial expectations. While, reading about a less confident Indy was a bit jarring at first, I did get into it and it really did make sense amidst the time frame... however, I do look forward to any novels that cater to the more hardened adventurer version of Indiana Jones. Perhaps I will find one in my pile of books as I read these in order of release.